Incumbent Bettye Davis will serve a second term on the Anchorage School Board after a majority of voters Tuesday chose her for Seat A.
Meanwhile, Kay Schuster appeared poised to take the second open spot on the board, with nearly 98 percent of precincts reporting and 379 votes separating her from her competitor for Seat B.
Davis, 77, had a decisive victory in this year's election. She won 56 percent of the votes. Her sole challenger, Brent Hughes, had nearly 43 percent.
Davis said Monday that she had unfinished business she wanted to complete as a school board member, including the search for the next school district superintendent. Hughes said Tuesday evening that he didn't expect to win the election.
"If I win, I'm going to resign," Hughes said in a phone interview. "I didn't run to be elected." Instead, 67-year-old Hughes, said he ran to get information out about book he authored the 1990s to help students learn their multiplication tables. It's a math curriculum ignored by school officials and the media, he said.
In the race for School Board Seat B, Schuster had a 35.11 percent vote by 11 p.m. Schuster is a 44-year-old special education department chair with the Anchorage School District. Starr Marsett, a 60-year-old real estate agent, had 34.06 percent. David Nees, a 59-year-old former Anchorage math teacher, had nearly 30 percent.
Marsett said she watched the results roll in from a friend's home Tuesday night. Around 10:30 p.m., she said she was still optimistic. "I think it's anybody's ballgame," she said.
Anchorage School Board Seat B was vacated by Eric Croft, who won a seat on the Anchorage Assembly in the Tuesday election.
The two winning school board candidates will join the seven-member board and govern the state's largest school district.